d his family. They all had good clothing--the
women's dresses being made of calico, and the butler's suits of good
grade cloth, the particular kind of which Mr. Eason knows nothing about.
He himself wore a one-piece garment made of crocus.

Mr. Eason was about 7 or 8 years of age when he was first sent to work
in the field. It was then that his troubles began. He says that he was
made to get up each morning at sun-up and that after going to the field
he had to toil there all day until the sun went down. He and his fellow
slaves had to work in all types of weather, good as well as bad.
Although the master or the overseer were not as cruel as some he had
heard of they tolerated no looseness of work and in case a person was
suspected of loafing the whip was applied freely. Although he was never
whipped, he has heard the whip being applied to his mother any number of
times. It hurt him, he says, because he had to stand back unable to
render any assistance whatever. (This happened before he was sent to the
plantation.) When his mother got these whippings she always ran off
afterwards and hid in the woods which were nearby. At night she would
slip to the cabin to get food and while there would caution him and the
other children not to tell the master that they had seen her. The
master's wife who was very mean was always the cause of her receiving
these lashings.

Some nights after he and the other slaves had left the field they were
required to do extra work such as ginning cotton and shelling peas and
corn, etc. The young women were required to work that in some respects
was as hard as that the men did, while the older women usually did
lighter work. When the time came to pick the cotton all hands were
converted into pickers. Night was the only time that they had to do
their washing and to cultivate the small gardens they were allowed to
have.

During the months when there was little field work to do they were kept
busy repairing fences, etc. on the farm. Every day was considered a
working day except Sunday, Thanksgiving and Christmas. They were not
allowed to celebrate on these days as were the slaves on other nearby
plantations.

Clothing on the Ormond plantation was usually insufficient to satisfy
the needs of the slave. Each year one issue was given each slave. For
the men this issue consisted of 1 pair of brogan shoes, several homespun
shirts, a few pairs of knitted socks, and two or three pairs of pants.
The broga